MIA: Android Battlelog

I've been playing Battlefield 3 since the day it launched.  Now, granted, I wasn't bothered by their iPhone app for Battlelog.  I figured that it won't be long until an Android counterpart would come soon anyway.  At the very least, that's what everyone had hoped for.

Recently, I just ordered myself my first smartphone -- a Samsung Galaxy S III (or S3 for short).  I've long held off on getting one because the smartphone market has been pretty fragmented and uninteresting.  That was until the S3 came along.  Here and there, I've looked into reviews and spec sheets over each smartphone.  I've looked through a lot of them.  And a lot of them had some sort of deficiency that detracted me from getting one.  Added to that is the fact that getting a phone w/o any ties would cost an arm and a leg.  So I held off on getting one.

I've watched the Android market explode and become as big as it is today.  Tons of Android phones with varying degree of features, and OS versions, as well as power, capabilities, and battery life.  You get all that for less than what most people would pay for an iPhone.  But that's the thing.  Granted, iPhone is perhaps one of the biggest selling smartphone identity since the Blackberry.  In fact, it essentially steamrolled over the Blackberry like Judge Doom.  But ever since the Android came into the market, things has been tricky yet the OS slowly got better and better, along with the hardware too.  The hardware got better and it pulled even a GPU company into diving into the mobile device market with their own SoC (System on Chip).  Today, Android is competing head to head with iOS on even grounds.  The market is basically split in two.  Things were not as shakey as they were back then for Android.  And both are viable platforms for which to make apps on.

When Battlefield 3 came out, you had two major smartphone platform -- iOS and Android.  While it was initially disappointing to see that there's an app for the iOS platform, I figured it was a matter of time before an Android version would be released.

It's been 8 months since then.  And what do we have?  Nothing.  Google had its I/O conference and they unveiled Android 4.1, along with the Nexus 7 tablet.  Android is a market that will continue to grow and compete head-on with Apple and their iOS platform.  It only makes sense to have an app for both platform so you don't alienate your audience when it comes to a mobile app.  To not have an Android app after so many months is simply unacceptable.  In fact, it's downright deplorable.

So how long would it take to really have an official Android app for Battlelog?  It certainly should not be 8 months, if not 6.  To leave so many people out in the cold without an app, it does not make Battlelog a more social experience.  It's akin to making Battlelog an Apple experience.  It's not magical to me.  It's almost discriminatory.

I'm nearing the edge of my playing time for Battlefield 3.  There's a certain game slated for a late August release.  I have a feeling I won't have much time to continue supporting my "top 400" world ranking for knife kills.  Put simply, I might have to hang up my knife and let it retire.

One Big Pile Of...

It's been a while since I last posted anything.  It seems that I've slacked off in getting my last Gundam finished up and its photo taken.  Hopefully I'll get around to it.

For the past several months, I've been constantly playing Battlefield 3.  That isn't to say that I've been playing 24/7.  But whenever possible, I clock in about 2 to 3 hours worth each night.  Sometimes less, due to illness or just too tired to bother.  Playing the game has been a rough ride, personally, because of what DICE, the developers of the game, have done with the franchise.  At first, things were pretty okay, with a couple of things broken and some things not working as it should.  And updates would be released in order to fix that.  Along with it are changes in how the weapons work and how things are rendered on the computer.  Mind you, I play first-person shooters on PC first rather than on consoles.  Yet in each and every update, I see some improvements bout a several drawbacks.  Getting used to them takes a while and usually I just don't find it all that interesting to really do anything else.  To pass time and in an attempt to challenge myself, I set up a rather unorthodox challenge.  Unlike most who would try to get certain kills using certain weapons or whatever else, mine is more of a long-term goal in mind.  The first challenge was to rise up in the world rankings and become part of the top 1000 in knife kills.  Meaning, using whatever means, be it a front slash kill or a takedown, I'll try to get a kill with a knife.  Any potential target or chance I get, I'd try my luck.

It didn't take long to really rise up in the world rankings.  And soon I've surpassed that mark of 1000.  Okay, challenge is over.  What's next?  Again, with nothing else to really do, I've continued what I've been doing.  It's gotten to the point where I'd know how to do a knife takendown almost proficiently.  The days go by and I'd fly past 900, 800, and 700.  So I figure I'd set up 500 as the next marker.  It's a nice round number and it isn't too drastic.

As I was climbing up the world rankings in being the top 500, I noticed that the rate of which I skip past others got a bit slower.  It's probably because the kill gap is continually changing.  Just how much is changing is beyond me.  Still, I didn't let it stop me, as I've been consistently going to a particular server and playing on a certain map to get those stabs.  Eventually I'd finally break the 500 mark and breathe a sigh of relief.  Yet I still do not know what else to do.  Granted, now that the new "expansion" has come out, there are new weapons to unlock and something for me to try out.  But that doesn't really stop me from constantly looking for lonely stragglers and gutless snipers to stab.

Another thing that I've been doing is doing video capture of my knifing runs.  The clips were nothing more than chances and spots where I've managed to hit the 'record' key and get a knife kill in the process.  There were several short clips but some were long and worth the HD space it consumed.  After processing 51 clips, it's time to edit it all and creating a montage video out of it.  But there's a problem with that.

To see what it's capable of, I installed some Windows Live Essentials programs and made sure to include Windows Live Movie Maker.  Editing in this software isn't too bad, and is capable of doing what I wanted it to do, at the basic level.  And when I finally got around to finalizing the whole thing for export, the only format I could save it under is a WMV file.  To me, this is an inferior format and I had wish they would use a more open or usable format, such as MP4.  Another drawback is the lack of encoding option.  There was no option to choose a different video encoding such as H264.  So I was stuck with encoding using Windows Media.  I saved the exported file for a trial run and gave it a quick view.  It only took me 2 seconds to see that the whole video look like crap.  The video was blurry and the video was saved using a very high bitrate too.  I looked high and low for ways to improve this and found nothing.  I was frustrated at the result of constant searching, reading, and the repeated trial & error that resulted in no improvement.

Another program that I tried was also free, called Lightworks.  This editor seems to have a good reputation as being the premiere editor of choice when it comes to film editing.  But I was looking beyond film editing.  Still, I gave it a trial run to see what it's capable of.  Sadly, there's little I could do.  Granted, editing is probably top notch but its video format was very lacking in almost every way possible.  Importing Motion-JPEG encoded videos is fine.  But it could not even support a lossless encoding format like Huffyuv.  And that really drags everything down.  Worse is that in order to support Motion-JPEG is that I was forced to install QuickTime on my system, which I could easily live without since I use iTunes as a music player.

In some YouTube videos, I see there are people using Sony Vegas.  I gave it a quick look through but there are things that doesn't make much sense and it felt very foreign.  I wasn't able to give it enough time to really examine the software throughout to see if it was truly worth using.  Still, it didn't feel like things fell into place when I tried it.

Frustrated, and feeling that there's no other option, I installed parts of Adobe Master Collection CS6, Premiere included. I have not used Premiere in a very long time. Still, some of the basic editing tools are still around and their concept of layers still applied despite their lettering to be reversed. After spending a few days with it, I got used to how things worked and started viewing their exporting option. While it is a bit disappointing that I do not have an output format of Matroska for a container, I'm relieved that it can encode in H264. For audio, it did not matter to me what encoding I used as I am fine with either MP3 or AAC. The biggest factor is always the video encoding and H264 is my preferred choice when exporting videos for upload.

The resulting export gave me a file that weighs in at 1GB for 15 minutes worth. Initially, I had thought YouTube would not allow me any video uploads longer than 15 minutes. Yet when I went in to upload the video itself, I get a blue banner notification saying that my account is approved for uploads longer than 15 minutes. "DOH!" Well, no use in dwelling over it. The cut was already made and I finalized the video. I have no intention of keeping the original and processed videos for long since they eat up so much space. I plan on doing some more but that's if I ever get around to doing it. I still need to do an example video showcasing the immense peripheral view difference between single-monitor gaming and triple-monitor gaming. I hope that I will have such a chance at some point. And then there's the idea of doing a full-round recording with a possible commentary mixed in.

To Eyefinity And Beyond

The idea is nuts.  The experience is grand.  The cost is a tad overboard.  But when it all comes together, the description is mind boggling.  There isn't much to be said when people speak of Eyefinity. Sure it's a wild idea and the caveat is a bit disappointing to say the least.  Yet what you gained is probably something you won't be able to live without.

Reaching the Summit

It didn't take long for me to do this.  Seeing as I only need to nudge it a little and I'll achieve it.  The Lucky title is definitely a troublesome title to deal with.  With chances, statistics, and percentages, I had to gamble each time I walk up to a chest to open it.

Achieving the Blessed by Fate title also pushes another title over to the highest tier possible.  With that, not only did I achieve 1 goal but I have accomplished 2.  The Kind of a Big Deal title track is one that requires a lot of time, money, and dedication.  By money, I do mean that it does require some financial backing in order to make some progress on it, such as the Drunkard, Party Animal, or Sweet Tooth titles.  These titles require a large sum in order to push the title forward.  Fortunately, I have done a enough and a lot to require little compensation for most things that people have asked for.  And for me, it was because people in the Alliance were generous enough to give me what I need in order to go forward.  I never asked for much in return.  And most items I have handed out were for free or for items to help me with my titles.  Thus, the total amount of money invested in any of those three were virtually zero.

5 Years And Counting

It's been a long time.  5 years ago, a new online RPG game was released to the world.  And people got a taste of how the game Guild Wars worked.  Breaking away from typical and traditional MMOs, Guild Wars don't rely on using worlds where others can meet mid-way through.  Instead, parties are formed first and they enter in an instance of their own world, with no outsiders or anyone else to disturb them.  While at first the notion of such a thing is a welcome change due to the possibility of a rogue player wrecking havoc, it also introduces the element of not being able to meet a party that is already in a session.  Not being able to join mid-way through is part of the compromise of having an instanced world where all the loot and gold are shared amongst those in that party.  For the time being, this was a good thing.

Fraudulent Procedures

*sigh* Idiots...

About a week ago, ArenaNet posted a tweet offering up 3 free access key codes on a first-come, first-serve basis.  This was an interesting opportunity to score a costume if I was quick about it.  With time to spare, I went to fire up Guild Wars in order to get the game up to date and be prepared for it.  However, just after entering the password, which I am sure was correct, I get hit with a Code=045 error.  The dialog box describes it as "payment fraud."  For whatever reason, all four of the Guild Wars accounts are locked.  I cannot log on to any one of them and found out that the NCsoft Master Account is also locked.

Another One

So another Gundam model has arrived at my doorstep.  This time, it's the Gundam Astray Red Frame from the Gundam Seed universe.  The box itself is quite impressive but the content and the details are even more amazing.  Like Sword Impulse before it, there are a lot of parts.  And it appears that the model comes with a support base to help with the overwhelming weight of one of the equipment.  This will be quite interesting when I pair it up with the display base that I got for Sword Impulse Gundam earlier.

Well Played, Canada

It was the rematch.  And again, it was Super Hockey Sunday.  Previously, in a preliminary round, Team USA on men's hockey managed to beat Team Canada on their home turf.  Seems like a sign that Team USA could win the gold, right?  Not really.  Canada bounced back and made it all the way to the Gold Medal finals, where they faced, again, Team USA.

The Final Stretch

I guess I never really did much on Guild Wars during all the time that I have spent playing.  But that was until I started actively trying to do things that I thought would take a while to do.  Case in point is the achievement, or title as it's called in Guild Wars, Incorrigible Ale-Hound.  To get this, one must spend 10,000 minutes dunk.  And the timing is actual minutes, or less if you use some tricks to shorten the effect by some margin.  10,000 minutes equates to over 166 hours, or nearly 7 days.  Obviously, nobody is going to sit around for that long trying to achieve this.  So progress on this is recorded and tallied so that one can continue where left off.  After collecting and amassing so much in-game liquor, I started consuming the item one by one.  It was perhaps one of the most troublesome to do as there are times where I'd want to do something, yet cannot due to the game taking up the screen.  And then there are times when I cannot do much due to a certain 3rd-party utility to assist the process of consumption.  On the final leg of this achievement, I turned to something different: Virtual Machines.  I downloaded and installed VirtualBox to toy around with.  And naturally I installed Windows XP on the virtual machine.  It was fast but it was also significantly slower in rendering 3D.  This is due to limited support for 3D rendering within the virtual machine itself, which has to be passed through to the real video card for processing.  It's not a major hurdle.  But at least performance is as good as it gets for the time being.

At the time, my primary character on my Guild Wars account has 29 total achievements that are set at its maximum.  There is a special achievement for getting 30.  However, the 30th achievement is quite far at this time.  None of the other titles yet to max out are not easily attainable, due to starting late in the game.  Though that sounds misleading.  To be precise, I never really pursued some of these titles because it held no interests at the time.  And even today, some of them don't hold much interest.  The only title left for me to actively pursue is the Lucky title, where the highest tier or rank on this track is Blessed by Fate.  Having spent so much in-game gold on trying to advance the title as far as I could, I am now at a point where I may be able to finally achieve that goal.  However, the only thing standing between me and that is time and availability.  Progress on this title can be done at any time.  However, the method is troublesome and somewhat expensive compared to simply sitting on a location and let the game run on its own for hours on end.

As I look at the game as a whole, I can only wonder just what else is there left to do.  I have done all that I have can do within my own personal tolerance for the game.  Doing it all over again on different characters tend to sap the motivation out of me, as I yearn for something different.  What will the future hold after achieving one of the highest achievements in the game?  I wonder... I just wonder...

Several months back, I posted on having completed a Gundam model kit.  Model kits aren't really my cup of tea.  One of the drawbacks to model kits is the unfinished appearance of the assembled product.  This is has been the case for many years.  Hobbyist have the option of applying color via paint or airbrush in order to give their assembled model kits a more accurate appearance and finished product.  There are hobbyist out there who do so much more and I am envious of them.  They take such great care and know the process inside and out.  They apply the finished color and the end result is nothing short of amazing.  If one were to stroll by a bookstore such as Barnes & Noble or your local comic/hobby store, you will find magazines and publications with images of small scale models that look quite life-like.  Helicopters, cars, bikes, aircraft, tanks, boats, submarines, and yes even Gundams, all well made and all assembled and painted to perfection.

So why blabber on about this?  Like I said, model kits aren't my cup of tea.  Yet one thing Bandai has done that I absolutely love is they make their Gundam model kits capable of being assembled without the use of cement or glue.  It is because of this that I was able to finish Sword Impulse Gundam.  And I am considering going through the assembly process once more.  Hobby Link Japan has Bandai's Gundam Seed Frame Astray Red Custom kit for pre-order.  And while the design is rather over-the-top and crazy, there is one thing that usually piques my interests and attention: swords.  Sword Impulse Gundam had a pair of long sword and it got longer when you attach the visual effects on them.  This one features a pair of swords complete with scabbards.  As Gundam is a sci-fi universe, the idea of a traditional-styled sword with scabbard is unusual.  Yet here it is as part of the design and for a Gundam model.

Winter Steam

So Steam is offering great deals on a variety of games that they have available at their store.  This is similar to their Thanksgiving/Black Friday deals that they had some weeks ago.  But this time, it seems their offers are much more interesting than before.  Having already purchased Trine, Braid, and World of Goo at prices which were too good to pass up, they offer those three again at similar or better prices.  Unbelievable!  Yet while those small indie games which I have posted before are great to have, other games are making waves.  Games such as Torchlight, Battlefield 2: Complete Collection, Unreal Deal Pack, and Left 4 Dead 2 are attracting buyers.  For me, though, I have little interest in Torchlight and the Unreal Deal Pack.  Both BF2 and L4D2 are already in my possession so there's no need to get 'em again.  But one game in particular, I have been waiting for a good deal to happen.  I have been waiting since their deals and sales that started with Left 4 Dead.  I have kept an eye out for Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box for the PC ever since it made its way onto Steam.  Since then, I have waited for a weekend deal to get this game for a great price.  I didn't want to pay full price for it, given its age and how it lacks the Big Surf Island add-on that console players are able to enjoy.  And there are no Steam Achievements to mimic the achievements and trophies offered on the console platform.  But the last bit isn't much of a big deal.

So finally on December 28, 2009, Steam offers the one game that I wanted to play on the PC platform at the price that I was looking for.  And Steam does not disappoint.  At US$7.49, it was at a price that was better than anticipated and expected.  Having already finished most of what's available and to do on the Xbox 360, I just know I'll be having fun again trying to redo some of the things that the game has to offer.  Although some are a bit of a pain, I am willing to tolerate going at it again just because it's going to run smoothly with anti-aliasing turned on.

Who knew that Steam would be doing this to me?  It's almost as though what Steam is offering during these limited run daily deals are nickel-and-diming me because what they offer are truly good games to have and purchase.  Next up, the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum should be removed of DRM.  But I won't hold my breath on that.  If it weren't for DRM, I would have purchased the game via Steam.  Oh well.

Digging A Deeper Grave

You know how people say that one is digging their own grave? I guess you can say that this is one of those cases where it's like that. Granted, it's already been set when Infinity Ward when they said that there won't be any dedicated server. But nobody knew just how deep the grave hole would be until just recently.

Best Buy hosted a live-chat with the people from Infinity Ward. And with it, questions about the game will be asked directly and the IW staff would have a chance to answer them. Obviously the questions that were raised repeatedly were regarding dedicated servers. But nothing was said that they will ever consider it, implying that they have full confidence that their IWNET system will work without issue. Another question that was raised that factored in to the limitations to the IWNET system is the maximum number of players possible. It turned out to be 18, or 9 for each side. Also gone from the game is console access, which enables people to enter special commands to tweak certain settings so that they are able to better suit one's playing experience. Some games featured the ability to lean left and right, allowing you a chance to peek around the corner instead of dancing in and out of corners where you can get shot. That feature is no longer in Modern Warfare 2. The issue with ping, another shortcoming of the IWNET system, will see players connecting with ping of over 100ms at the very least. So the playability on other people's host machine will be akin to playing through a fast 56k modem of the old days.

Much of what was seen in other FPS games on the PC platform saw these as standard-fare features. There was no question to include them as they allow for all sorts of customizations for players to utilize. They can tweak the game so that it can suit their setup no matter how strange or odd it may seem compared to the general masses. Sure the console players may not use 'em. But that's probably where everything went wrong there. Having to cater to the lowest common denominator seems to be the clear-cut choice when it comes to develop today's AAA/franchise games. And because of that, the PC players are slowly being ousted from having a reliable, dependable, thriving, and tightly-knit community. I just do not see why the big developers of today would look down on PC gamers so much now since it was the PC gamers that put them where they're at today. The one game that started out on the PC has now evolved and turned into a game that is nothing more than a mere port of a console-centric game. Yet Infinity Ward claims that is not a port but a new version that now has "custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings." Sorry but these three items are standard features on all PC games in general.

I just cannot tell you how terrible it looks now. Never mind the dumb features that they put into the game. There are many ways to make the gaming experience a thousand times better than what's being known as of now. Yet this is perhaps the one method that has truly killed the game before it even hit the store shelves.

The Chaos Before The Storm

What a difference a weekend makes. I spent the weekend quietly and was not aware of a major news that broke out from an interview. By the time I heard about it, it was Sunday evening and was rather surprised by it. Well, not really... still, it was a bit of a surprise.

Infinity Ward, the developers to Call of Duty 4, is changing how PC players find games/rounds online for their multi-player experiences in their direct sequel: Modern Warfare 2. The change is simply this: no dedicated servers. In place of this and with the help of Valve's Steam platform is IWNET, a multi-player platform that supposedly help get players into the game as quickly as possible and as painlessly as possible. What it's going to do is turn the multi-player experience to like what people find in console systems like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You end up with a match-making system where they decide for you where you should group up with based on your so-called skill.

Long-time PC gamers and FPS players would know that this kind of system would never work. Even if it has been tried before, it has never worked according to the developer's intention. With the removal of dedicated servers in Modern Warfare 2, an outpouring of protest, proposed boycott, and mostly anger have flooded the PC gaming sites around the world. It has reached the ears of IGN. It has the attention of PBBans. And it has placed immense pressure on Infinity Ward's community manager, Robert Bowling, who broke the said news about IWNET and the absence of dedicated servers.

Yet while all of this primarily affected PC gamers, Xbox 360 players have almost nothing to worry about. But they should worry to some extent. Much of how PC gaming has evolved can be found in many of today's games. Much of how PC gaming started can be found in many of today's games. Many properties seen in console FPS games can be traced back to the early days of PC gaming. This is because Infinity Ward was founded on the Call of Duty games and PC games in general. Why should the console players care about this? A history lesson is needed, for all you young whipper-snappers! Best you show some respect to your elders! *waves walking cane around*

A long, long time ago, a game called Wolfenstein 3D was released as a shareware. Developed by id Software and published by Apogee, it was a successful title that prompted a little known sequel called Spear of Destiny. But id Software was hard at work on making the next game. It would be the game that started it all and changed the face of gaming. That game would be heralded as DOOM. DOOM brought us fast-paced action FPS and gave us the first glimpse of deathmatch. After DOOM and DOOM II, Quake was unleashed and the possibilities were expanded exponentially. Various modifications to the game were released from maps to new game modes to rewriting the entire story altogether. It was the game that gave us Capture the Flag and Team Fortress 2. The people responsible for Team Fortress would go on to develop the Team Fortress Classic modification for Half-Life and eventually be designers for Team Fortress 2. Bungie's project with Halo, which lasted many years, would eventually become a Microsoft Xbox exclusive. The game became the icon for Microsoft's Xbox platform and spawned 2 sequels plus one title based on the Halo universe.

No matter how you look at it, much of how gaming is today is all thanks to how PC gaming has evolved over the years. We would never have Battlefield 1942 if it weren't for Starsiege: TRIBES, where the aspect of a large map can be found on both games. We would never have Unreal Tournament without Quake 3 Arena competing with it for multi-player dominance. But there is a common theme that all of the aforementioned games. All of them except DOOM/DOOM II have a dedicated server. The presence of a dedicated server has remained a standard feature amongst the majority of FPS games today, which not only help centralize where people play but also help stabilise overall ping times.

So as the day go by and the outcry rages on, I watch from a distance. I do not know if there will be changes. I do not know if sales will plummet. But I do know one thing. Infinity Ward has lied and spat in the face of thousands of PC gamers everywhere. Not that it matters much for me, as I have no intention of getting the game in the first place, dedicated server or not. Still, this is something that people have expressed anger and disappointment over. One has to wonder how things will turn out as the release date inches closer.

The Little Games That Could

Lately I have been on a couple of buying spree for deals on games. And I blame it all on Steam for making such games too good to pass up. It all started out with World of Goo, a simple puzzle game that uses physics to help provide problems and solutions. The usual price is about US$20 but I picked it up for a small sum of US$5. The game is beautifully done and I see why people liked it so much. And as you progress, the puzzles themselves become harder and harder to solve. Yet this isn't some big-time game that is backed by a giant corporation. Nah. This is a small game that is developed by talented programmers who wanted to make a simple and fun game for people to enjoy. Independent developers is what we call them these days. And these kind of people are starting to pop up more.

The game called Trine is another "indie" game that also deserves some attention. Also based on physics, it is a simple 2D platformer where you control one of three characters in the game. It also features the ability to let other people play along, making it a unique co-operative game. Having tried the demo, the gameplay is interesting enough to make me want to get it. However, like anyone would want these days, you'd look for a way to get the game as cheap as possible (that is, without resorting to getting a bootleg copy).

Recently, Braid was put on sale for US$5. Its regular price is about US$15. Braid is a unique game, as it is a puzzle platformer, focusing mostly on how to manipulate time. Yet it is much more complex than that. Often the solution is so obvious that it never occurred to you.

And then there's Fez, a 2D platformer set in a 3D world. Everything visually displayed is to give the illusion that it is an old retro-styled 2D platforming game. The twist is that the world is actually 3D for which you can rotate its view to look at the world from a different perspective. Unfortunately, nobody has ever tried or tested the game, as it's not even out yet. It's still in development. But who knows when the game will finally be released. At least, however, the entertaining physics-based drawing game called Crayon Physics Deluxe is out after many months in development.

All of these games provide a unique form of entertainment unlike anything we've seen in today's big franchise games. Yet all of them provide a sense of good value when it comes to purchasing it, for they are cheap and is worth the money spent. It is too bad I cannot say the same for some other titles, where the cost is 50 to 60 dollars at retail.

Frozen Pigs Flying In Hell

For a very, very long time, the game Battlefield 2 has suffered dearly in many ways than one. Even worse so is the attack on ranked servers that try to maintain a place for people to connect on and have some fun. I have not played the game in many months, if not weeks, for I have long moved on to better games that are at least supported. Well, the term support should now be taken with a grain of salt, seeing there's hardly a company that gives a damn on what their customers want.

Having played BF2 and its follow-up, 2142, I have seen some dismal support that hardly came. And when it feels like BF2 was being abandoned in favor of 2142, I have given up on trying to play either of the games. Nobody I know plays 2142 actively and I'm stuck looking for a game to play. Added to this is the shitty support for a simple thing: widescreen. It isn't much to ask for. Yet I have touted time and time again, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, to get the idiots to at least hear out the argument in the most reasonable way. Yet it felt that nobody is even hearing or even bothering to pass the word along. It felt that all I was doing was screaming at a brick wall.

It was when 2142 received a patch that finally got some sort of support for widescreen. But there was still one piece of the puzzle missing. BF2 is still without that same kind of support treatment. And just when people would simply drop the game and move on, which I have done many months in advance, there comes the announcement that a major patch to BF2 will be made to address some of the lingering and current issues with the game. Most notably is the attack on servers that forces the software to crash. And time went on, and on, and on...

I cannot tell you just how frustrated I was at DICE/EA as a company. It's understandable if the company was working on one or two projects at a time. At least it's efficient that way to get things done, if you have enough people to really support handling two projects. But it doesn't seem that way.

When the announcement was made, DICE/EA was purportedly working on Bad Company, maintaining 2142, creating Battlefield Heroes, and now the 1.5 patch for BF2. Added to this is the rumored Battlefield 3 that everyone seems to be pinning their hopes on.

Later on, word got out that they were working on Mirror's Edge. And then Bad Company was released, and the sequel to that will be made. So one project is finished and then another one started. Still counting?

And then there's the graphical revival of Battlefield 1942 called 1943. So how many do we have now? Battlefield Heroes is now a running project open to all. BF'43 is out and a PC port is currently being worked on. And then there's any other maintenance that BF2 and 2142 requires. And Bad Company 2 is in the works. As it stands now, that's 4 different things, where 3 are majors tasks that require more attention. Yet DICE/EA continues to pile on projects after projects.

It was revealed on why it took so long to develop the 1.5 patch for BF2. Their answer was that they didn't have one or two guys working on it. Instead, they used time-limited resource allocation. In other words, the patch only got worked on in a limited time that was given by the higher-ups. That, to me, means they have serious management and resource allocation issues. It's one thing to split off the company into different teams for working on different things (like a PS3 codebase team w/ a unified visual/texture design team). But to give a maintenance patch a limited time for coders to work on, that's just downright stupid.

Assume for a bit that they shoved all of their projects aside. Assume for a bit that once Bad Company was done and Mirror's Edge never existed on paper. That would mean the one major project running at the time was Battlefield Heroes. What then? A bunch of people would then sit down, look at the BF2 to-do list, and start looking into what needs to be done. I theorize that had they never bothered with Mirror's Edge and/or BF'43, they could have finished the BF2 1.5 update in about 3-4 months time after the initial announcement.

Of course, all of this is just in theory, since it took them more than a fucking year to do this. The confirmation of such update was made on June 23, 2008, where a stupid update post was made September 18, 2008, with a winter release goal in mind. That, of course, never happened.

Yet in the time it took them to actually finish the damn patch, they have finished Mirror's Edge, got Battlefield Heroes stable enough to move to open beta status, and released Battlefield 1943. That's 3 fucking projects they have finished, some of which dated back farther than the notion of building a new patch for BF2. Still, it seems that DICE did nothing more than tack on projects after projects to the point where small things received little or no attention at all.

So... September 1, 2009. Over a year has passed since that announcement. The patch is finally out and with it, a lot of content. For starters, Euro Force and Armored Fury, two booster packs that used to sell for US$9.99 each, are now available to all for free. Not only is this a good move but it finally brings all the players together. Before, the maps that came with these booster packs did nothing more than clear out the server. Only a select handful of people would be able to play on these special maps but you'd be left with a fraction of people on the server. It was probably one of the most hated aspect of running a ranked server, as it does nothing more than empty it out quickly. It would go from being populated to empty in less than 5 minutes time, simply because they would all leave to go elsewhere. It doesn't help the server, since it basically bumps people off to other server. And that can potentially lose a faithful player from ever returning.

Another added bonus is the addition of a new map for ranked play. Still, one of the most dumbest aspect to ranked server is the inability to run user-created maps that can be verified, endorsed, or approved for ranked play. Yet while this was seen to work to a certain extent in 2142, there was never a consistent or robust method for which user-created maps can be submitted for approval for ranked play. Because of this, people play the same map over and over and over. There was not enough ranked maps to go around and not enough different content to keep players playing. The booster packs was probably meant as a way to solve this but we all know how that went.

So what do everyone get? A small shot in being able to play something new for a change. But trying to get back to BF2 isn't easy, nor is it all that great. Having played both Call of Duty 4 and World at War, I have come to learn that the bullet system employed in these two Call of Duty games surpasses that to what BF2 is able to do. I have played the game long enough that if you wanted to be able to shoot straight, the most you need to do is simply aim. In BF2, using the weapon's iron sight doesn't necessarily equate to always being able to shoot straight. Quite often the second shot after the first will go astray, a side effect to the game's bullet deviation system. And nothing in the world will get you to shoot straight ever again, even when taking careful shots in aiming at your target. You'd think that if you're laying down prone or taking your sweet time firing off one shot at a time the bullets will always go straight. Not in BF2. In order for the bullet to fly straight to where you're aiming, you have to wait forever. I don't think anyone wants to wait that long.

I have tried to play again. And having been away from the game for so long, I have stumbled trying to relearn all the controls. Yet the one thing that screws me over is the fact that I cannot aim straight after the first shot. Shouldn't the idea of knowing how to aim straight is knowing how to control the recoil of your weapon? At least in World at War, I can control how I shoot by shooting in short bursts, so that I don't lose control of the recoil when trying to shoot at a target far away.

I have mixed feelings on this so-called 1.50 patch. Granted, I'd need time to adjust back to how the game plays and get a feel for the new map. But I just can't stand not being able to fire a weapon straight down the middle when doing careful aiming. One thing is certain, though. Hell has frozen over and the patch is actually out. Who'd knew?

The Fourth

As Guild Wars is about to celebrate its 4th year, players are now shown what’s under the hood for the 4th Anniversary update.  And with it, there are a lot of things to go through.  Some of them are questionable... but others are long in the making.

The most anticipated new feature is updates to the storage system.  Now players are given the option of acquiring an equipment pack which is used to store their armor and weapons.  Along with the equipment pack, players are now given the opportunity to purchase additional storage panes for their account.  It’s announced that they are offering the storage pane for US$10.  But some people have already pointed out that the pricing is not very economical.  In some stores, including online ones, one can get a new copy of Guild Wars, regardless of chapter/campaign, for the same price.  The cost of that new copy of Guild Wars would come with 2 storage panes plus 4 characters to use, which some people will end up using as “mules” for their items.

While the cost is indeed questionable, there are other purchasable items that players can choose from.  One of which is the makeover package which will enable people to redesign their characters and potentially mix different hairstyle, face, skin tones, and character height to their liking, including using different design options from other campaigns.

It’s too bad I won’t be able to fully look through all the new stuff that went into this update... at least, not right now.  I will be able to sort through it all.  I just need to get through several days of Nine Rings.

Disabled But Not Broken

Recently an update was published to the Call of Duty: World at War game for the PC platform.  That update came bundled with the game’s first Map Pack.  The update also comes with some fixes and changes to make the game play better, or at least that’s the intention of it.  Like many PC games that get updates from developers, there’s a list of changes that went into the game.  People would look at the change list and see what has been implemented in this update.  I am one of those people.

As I looked through the fucked-up mess that plagues the franchise forums, I came across a thread in regards to the game’s bipod.  As soon as I read that, I knew something is afoot, and with it I get a bad feeling on what I was about to read.  After following a few leads, I came across a thread where the poster expresses his frustration in the disabling of the bipod while in the prone position (aka laying down).  As soon as I heard that, I was also up in arms over this.

The big machine guns in the game all has one universal feature: a bipod.  The bipod enables users to mount their machine gun on a ledge or on a flat surface.  At the cost of mobility, you gain something much more: a machine gun with high accuracy and faster firing rate.  Sure, mounting the MG on a ledge may not always be ideal.  But when you stare down a long hall or alley, it is one of the best defensive option in the game, bar none.  There is nothing like this as enemies have very little chance to survive once the gunner is locked in.

What baffles me is the reason Treyarch disabled the bipod while prone.  Their excuse is that they feel that there is a potential threat that can possibly lead to a denial of service attack.  Whether or not this affects the client or the server software remains to be seen.  And there has been no widely publicized case of a certain bipod-related bug ever happening.  Yet Treyarch feels that the threat is so big that they need to disable it without telling anyone about it.  That’s right.  The update notes that I mentioned before contained no information with regards to the disabling of bipod while prone.  This frustrates me and throws me for a loop.  It’s one thing to say that you’re going to make a change to prevent a potential problem from occurring.  But it’s another to make that change without telling anyone about it.  In effect, they removed the one defensive option that I rely on because I find the option to be the best when I have the equipment and time on hand to deploy.

This undocumented change thing is nothing new.  Such a thing happens all the time, more often in the world of MMO’s.  But undocumented changes tend to be so small and so minor that it doesn’t affect anyone.  In many cases the change tend to be visual rather than gameplay-related.  This undocumented change is gameplay-related, which changes the way people set up defenses and suppression fire.

I’m ticked off that Treyarch would go behind the gamer’s back and make such a change without saying a word.  Not only did they screw this up but this is another bullet point to add to the things that Treyarch has done wrong with this game.  I have been tolerant on how they are supporting the game.  But this one hits me really hard.  So what happens now?  What will become of this?  Who knows?  I just know that I cannot deploy my bipod while prone even though it would help immensely in keeping enemies away.  Now I gotta deal with the machine gun’s recoil... That’s just fucking terrific...

A Prestigious Undertaking

This ought to sound familiar. As with any online games, I set up small little goals. I've been doing that since Battlefield 2. And when 2142 rolled around, I laid out some goals and awards to achieve. It helps keep me focused and it helps me to continue on playing. Then again, other factors that keeps me playing is the fact that there are friends around to play with. After all, it's a bit lonely playing an online shooting game by youself with nobody else around to trust and rely on.

Call of Duty: World at War introduces PC players the grindfest of Prestige mode for the first time. This particular mode enables people who have made it to the top to simply start over again. But starting over again does not mean that one would simply start from scratch. Prestige has its own share of benefits, usually in the form of a fancier badge icon next to your name and unlocking additional custom class slots.

Some people took the liberty of going Prestige, either out of curiosity or out of boredom. Some do it for a goal. And others do it simply because they can. The latter, however, is due to a configuration exploit. But I won't delve into that. In any case, those who took the time and effort to go slow are the ones who have earned it. And out of all of the Prestige badges out there, only one remains the most interesting and fancy: 5. It's not about getting to the top. That can be done at any time. To me, it was about what looked the most different and distinguished from the norm. I have seen many different players. And Prestige 5 appears to be the most different yet not overly common amongst the general public. It was there that I set my goal to achieve this.

With over 270 hours logged into that particular profile, I have finally arrived at the final stretch. All it takes is racking up the points in order to earn the next level/rank and unlock various attachments for my weapons. But that final bump on the road is now gone. And I am on my way to finally getting as much as I can done with a variety of challenges. But there is one particular challenge that I know will never be completed: Martyrdom. I refuse to complete it, knowing that this is the one challenge and perk that I despise the most. I shall never degrade myself to using it... unless it just happens to be on a distant public free-for-all server.

Doing What's Right

One of the joy of playing FPS games is making progress, whether that's improving one's skill online or seeing your progression through ranks and achievements.  Several games offer a way of keeping track of one's progression while playing online against and with other people.  Perhaps the first official system in place that track people's performance was through DICE/EA's Battlefield 2 game.  Its system employs a closed method by which people can earn points through a variety of methods.  However, because the system is closed, the only way to host a server by which the information is then sent to the master stats server is to rent from a licensed provider.  This is sometimes an unnecessary expense for those who wish to play around with the server software and configuration.  As a way to protect the system itself, certain properties of the server software itself remains closed and inaccessible to the public.

Other games that employ a centralized database of players' performance statistics utilize the same concept of a closed system.  After all, why jeopardize the one feature that helps build the playerbase and keeps the players in?

In Call of Duty 4, all the numbers are stored locally on the player's hard drive.  This is the biggest and dumbest mistake Infinity Ward ever made when they developed the game.  Because of this, it opens up a way for people to modify one's profile to inflate their score and numbers in order to rise up in their ranks.  There is no way to officially check against this and there is no method to safeguard the profile's integrity when a system becomes corrupted or unstable.  If an error occurs, the profile is zeroed out and the numbers reset.  You start back from scratch and one needs to go through the process of earning your points all over again.  This is all because your profile is stored locally.  When the one file that houses it becomes corrupt, you lose whatever achievements and performance numbers you earned on it.

Of course, when the next game in the Call of Duty series arrived, named World at War, Treyarch, the developers behind the current game, decided to utilize the same engine that powered Call of Duty 4.  While this is fine for the most part, they did next to nothing to address many of the issues that plagued Call of Duty 4.  Again and like before, World at War stores your progressions and numbers locally on your hard drive.  However, instead of a utility that was able to modify the profile directly, there is a new method that enables people to rise up in ranks effortlessly without utilizing the player's true skill.

It was discovered that due to a loophole in the Quality Assurance (QA) process the server software did not lock out certain variables from being set.  This resulted in modifying the server's defaults on earning points to values much higher and beyond any reasonable limit.  This introduces a number of servers called "Power" servers.  These servers provide substantially more points than one get, which enables people to effortlessly rise in ranks.  Because of this, many of the players who sought to earn the highest level of Prestige (seen here) can get there faster than a person can earn the highest rank (Level 65: Commander) through normal means.

For the playerbase, this ought to be considered a serious issue that require immediate fixing and a prompt release.  However, the issue is lumped together with other issues and bugs that the developers themselves have set aside to deal with after the holidays.  In other words, an update may not be released until the start of the new year.  Well shit...

Screw the holidays.  I'd rather forsake the holiday vacation to address that issue as a top priority than to hand myself an early vacation so I don't have to worry about it.  What utter bullshit that was... but I digress.

Having experimented around in order to gather data and information, I found that it took me less than an hour to go from Level 1 to Level 65, regardless of which level of Prestige I am at.  It became clear that those with the 10th Prestige level got that using the aforementioned servers.  It then became clear that those who did got the 10th Prestige did not earn it at all but rather took a shortcut to get it.  It's pathetic that they would resort to using such a method just to get a fancier icon.  Yet for what?  To say "I'm higher rank than you?"  Or to get what benefits Prestige also bestows upon people -- additional custom class slots?  A random player innocently asks on what the point is in going Prestige.  As one who is honest in answering such questions, I gave the person 3 points on why:

1. Boredom.  When you're bored, and you want to put all those extra points you earn to good use, then going Prestige will help in making sure that no earned points will go to waste.
2. You have serious management issues.  By default and once you've unlocked them, you are given 5 custom class slots.  They are enough for you to utilize whatever weapon that you are comfortable with and there is room to set a class for a particular role, such as a power-sniper, a grunt, or anti-tank.
3. No life.  Grinding away to get to the next Prestige level first is by no means an achievement.  It just shows you got no life in playing the game.  There are other things besides playing the game 24/7 and trying to become the best.  If you must become the best, then you're better off in trying to be a professional gamer instead.

I have no respect to those who took the shortcut to achieve such a rank.  Those who did it legitimately, I have nothing to say for.  If they have earned it through countless hours of playing on the server, day and night, night and day, then they earned it fair and square.  And for that, I have nothing to say against them.  It's by their choice to achieve this level of Prestige in such short time using legitimate means.  So there's nothing for me to argue against that for those who also have Prestige 10.  Yet when you are faced with those who potentially got far using a Power server, you are left to wonder if they suck or if they don't have the balls to do it the old fashioned way.

But why blabber on about this here?  It's because I've been to those servers before.  I've seen it.  I've played on it.  And I've gathered data on it.  But while I didn't completely blow my Prestige level over to the maximum possible, I only wish to see on how fast and how far.  After a few days of being Prestige 5, I have given this a second thought.  I could have gone all the way to get all the custom slots unlocked.  But where would the fun be in doing that without any effort?  Instead, I opted for doing the right thing instead.  I took my profile and wiped it.  No numbers remain and I start back from square one.  It's no easy decision, as I could easily have the upper advantage in being able to use whatever kit that is needed and appropriate for the given situation.  It means I lose all the numbers of kills I've had, the score, the deaths I've had, and my highest kill streak.  Everything would be wiped.  I would start back being an infantry all over again and earning everything all over again.

But what would I have to gain by doing that?  Easy.  There are times when I want to play just one more round just to get to the next level and potentially that next weapon unlock.  There are also times when I'd take the time to learn the weapons and find out its advantages and disadvantages.  The road is long and winding, yet the scenery along the way is nice.  The shortcut is plain, and nothing seems to be there.  I felt that by doing the right thing that I would redeem myself in making my profile truly prestigious.  By wiping my profile, I then set a goal: Prestige 5 or for however long my tolerance can take me.  Perhaps there is hope in really achieving that yet.

The Not-So-Final Fantasy

What seem like an eternity for the day to arrive, the title that I had looked forward to for so long is finally here. Back in the SNES days, a game by the name of Final Fantasy II came out. That game was labeled as the second game only due to it being the only second game to come out in America. However, it was actually the 4th Final Fantasy game ever released for the franchise.

Two ports later, one on Playstation 1 and one Game Boy Advance, the folks at Square-Enix decided to do something different for a change. Out with the old, in with something new. Like Final Fantasy III for the DS, the game was given a 3D treatment. In one of the handful of Final Fantasy games that I have ever played, I knew that this is one title that I wish to get.

Due to strange timings on behalf of both Circuit City and Best Buy, I had to wait until Wednesday to get my copy of the game. Using what resource I have and saving up from past gifts, I only ended up paying $11.50. But wait, I never had a Nintendo DS before. It was early July that I picked one up in order to make use of Best Buy's "RewardZone" program. With the DS in place, all I had to do is wait for it. And wait I did.

Final Fantasy IV DS is just like before. It looks different, feels different, yet still has the moments that I remembered before. While I am far from finishing it after getting it only yesterday, I find that I am actually struggling. The gameplay, while should remain mostly the same, is harder. And with it comes the challenge of trying to overcome such hurdles.

The music is just as I had remembered. Then again, it's the same as I had listened to before. I already listened through the entire FF4DS soundtrack which I picked up a couple of months ago. Since there are new cinematics along with some voice acting, I was skeptic as to how good the English dub will be. Having watched anime titles in Japanese with English subtitles, I've grown accustomed to hearing the original voice as it was recorded. So far, the English audio seems okay. I haven't come across anything obnoxious or out of place just yet.

Hopefully I'll be able to get past all the obstacles in the game and finally beat it. Well, that may take a while since I haven't played Final Fantasy IV in years.

Blast From the Past

Perhaps it's a sign of one's age or proof that a company will milk the franchise down to the very bone. I was alerted of this news by a local buddy of mine. Square Enix, or as I'd like to call it, SquEnix, put up a countdown site. As if the URL did not gave it away, the sound that plays in the background also proves it more. Chrono Trigger is coming. Whether or not this will be a remake or a sequel remains to be seen. However, given the current track record of SquEnix as of late, I suspect that it'll be a remake. I can only hope that some additional content will be added as well as having new artwork or models to go with this. Seeinng Chrono (no I do not call him "Crono.") again will be a treat as well as Kaeru. Sadly, there will be little detail as to what we will be seeing as time passes.

This news, along with anxiously waiting for Final Fantasy IV DS, is starting to drive me up the wall. I have not heard of this news at all and this pretty much hit me hard from the blindside. But I guess in the end, I'll be happy to get this game once it arrives. I only hope that the arrival will be quite some time off into the future.